Newsletter

Passage of time hasn't diminished interest in JFK's assassination

Chuck Mobley photo Jonathan Mullis, the store manager of the Barnes & Noble at Oglethorpe Mall, stands in front of the new history section. Those particular shelves have a number of books about the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

The 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy marks a poignant memory that still resonates for many Americans and represents a major opportunity for book publishers, said Jonathan Mullis, manager of Barnes & Noble at Oglethorpe Mall.

The Nov. 22, 1963, attack in Dallas had a “huge impact” on young Americans, said Mullis. Much like Pearl Harbor did for their parents’ generation, it changed their view of the world, and they can instantly recall where they were when word of Kennedy’s death reached them.

Now, 50 years later, those once-young Americans are still identified as “baby boomers,” and, said Mullis with a slight smile, they buy a lot of books and still have an enduring interest in the assassination and the personalities and events surrounding it.

One book on that day in Dallas, “Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot,” by Bill O’Reilly, is on two New York Times best-seller lists, No. 16 on combined print and ebooks and No. 21 on hardcover fiction.

At Amazon, two Kennedy books were on the top 100 list earlier this week: “The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ,” by Roger Stone was at No. 22, and “Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot” was at No. 57.

In his store, said Mullis, three books have sold particularly well — “Where Were You? America Remembers the JFK Assassination,” compiled and edited by Gus Russo and Harry Moses; “End of Days: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy,” by James Swanson; and “Camelot’s Court: Inside the Kennedy White House,” by Robert Dallek.

A couple of other new titles — “Rose Kennedy: The Life and Times of a Political Matriarch,” by Barbara Perry and “Rose Kennedy’s Family Album: From the Fitzgerald Kennedy Private Collection, 1878-1946,” with a foreword by Caroline Kennedy — center on JFK’s mother.

In the store’s new history section, a wave of 2013 JFK titles dominates the selections. They include “JFK in the Senate: Pathway to the Presidency,” by John T. Shaw; “Dallas 1963,” by Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis; and “If Kennedy Lived: The First and Second Terms of President John F. Kennedy — An Alternate History,” by Jeff Greenfield.

There’s also plenty of fodder in the new history section for those who subscribe to assassination theories, including “CIA Rogues and the Killing of the Kennedys: How and Why US (sic) agents Conspired to Assassinate JFK and RFK,” by Patrick Nolan; and “The Poison Patriarch: How the Betrayals of Joseph P. Kennedy Caused the Assassination of JFK,” by Mark Shaw.

Scattered throughout the store, there are a wealth of other, older books, including 14 in the biography section that chronicle JFK and other family members.

And, for those who prefer their history with a bit of a twist, said Mullis, there’s “11/22/63: A Novel,” by Stephen King.

The interest in JFK is not going to abide any time soon, said Mullis. There are plenty of other books on him in the publishing pipeline, including “Five Days in November,” by Clint Hill and Lisa McCubbin, which will be released this week.

Hill was one of the Secret Service agents detailed to John and Jackie Kennedy in Dallas.

Kennedy is “the new Lincoln,” said Mullis, referring to the 16th president, who was also assassinated. Some 15,000 books have been written on Abraham Lincoln, more than on anyone else in history, except Jesus Christ.